Exchange builders in the District of Columbia are dealing with one of the nuts-and-bolts questions facing organizers of public and private insurance exchanges throughout the United States: How to let the customers pay their premiums.
Members of the D.C. Health Benefit Exchange Authority voted 4-0 Tuesday to approve a resolution calling for the district's DC Health Link exchange to accept credit cards and debit card payments from individual market customers.
DC Health Link wouldn't charge customers any extra fees for paying with plastic and would treat card-related fees as general operating costs.
When the exchange emerges from its startup phase and becomes self-supporting, it will cover the cost of operating costs, including the card-related fees, by having carriers pay an assessment, exchange officials said.
The D.C. exchange managers would require Small Business Health Options Program exchange users to do without plastic in 2014.
The exchange managers would consider taking SHOP premiums via credit card and debit card in 2015, if interest in that option appears strong.
The District of Columbia is setting up its own district-based Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exchange.
The Center for Consumer Information & Insurance Oversight, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agency supervising the exchange program, wants exchanges to let customers pay with many different methods, but it hasn't officially required builders of state-based and district-based exchanges to accept debit and credit cards.
